Akantha Flowers
by IWantColouredRain
Summary: Before the Giants and Troy and Rome, the Goddess of Heroes was merely another demigoddess in love with a son of Athena. But she was never simply anything. From birth to death, she left the world trembling in her wake. Akantha was the one of the greatest gods, but she was the greatest demigod. (Goddess of Heroes spin-off.)
1. Akantha's Wedding

**Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HOO or Greek Mythology. The wedding traditions mentioned are genuine Greek traditions. Enjoy this spin-off of Goddess of Heroes. I recommend reading that too. R &R!**

* * *

"Are you _absolutely_ certain about this, Sister?"

Akantha bit back a frustrated sigh at Philomena's question. Since she and Lysander had announced their engagement the month prior, people had asked if they were sure at least three times a day each.

Personally, Akantha thought that just acknowledging their relationship and risking Poseidon and Athena's wrath said enough about their commitment to the wedding. But their siblings were still determined to change their minds apparently and had only a few hours left to do so.

"Philomena," she said turning to face her and waving Calista away, the daughter of Aphrodite frowning as she moved back. "I understand your concern and that you think only of my safety and happiness but I truly believe that the only way for me to be happy and healthy is by marrying Lysander. I have been struck by Eros' arrow and without Lysander at my side, I will surely waste away."

Her speech was more dramatic than usually made by herself and her half-siblings but it served its purpose of emphasizing her genuine belief in her words.

Philomena sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Our Lord Father is very displeased. Lady Athena also. I am afraid for you Akantha."

Akantha's eyes fell to the floor. Their decision to ignore the feud and stay friends after being claimed had caused chaos in the camp. Their engagement had resulted in a tsunami from her father's fury. Akantha suspected that she would be disowned upon speaking her vows. If she wasn't smote before finishing the oaths of fidelity anyway.

"I love him," she pleaded with her sister to understand. "I cannot lose him. If Father disowns me, then so be it." They had considered the consequences of their decision carefully and decided that even if they were killed for marrying, it would be worth it as long as they spent even one minute as husband and wife.

Philomena closed her green eyes and bowed her head in acceptance. Akantha felt a smile begin to play on her lips. "Well then," the other daughter of Poseidon said softly. "We should finish getting you ready shouldn't we?" The smile grew to full size at her favourite sibling's acceptance.

Calista came back over and continued working on Akantha's makeup while Philomena inserted delicate acanthus flowers into her raven locks. Akantha loved her hair. She hoped it would grow back quickly after she cut it off. The scent from Akantha's ritual bath the night before lingered as they worked in silence.

A knock came at the door and Calanthe, Akantha's closest friend entered with a delicate veil. Calanthe was the only one who had supported them completely and Akantha loved her for it.

"Oh!" Akantha let out a gasp as she took it. "Calanthe it's beautiful! Where did you get it?"

"I made it," she smiled back. "It is my wedding gift to you. Congratulations on your nuptials my dearest. I regret that I won't witness the ceremony."

Akantha felt her smile falter at the words but didn't try and change the other woman's mind. Lord Poseidon and Lady Athena would be angry enough. Akantha dreaded to think what would happen if the daughter of Zeus were to accompany her to Hera's temple.

"Come," Calanthe changed the subject as Philomena and Calista stepped back, Akantha now situably dressed save for her veil. "Let me place it on you. The party will be here soon enough." Akantha closed her eyes as she felt her friend attach the fabric to her head. When she re-opened them, her view was obscured by light green and blue lace.

A sharp knock came at the door and Akantha felt herself inhale sharply. "My daughter," the voice came from behind and all the girls spun around, falling to their knees in respect at the sight of the God of the Sea. His eyes flicked over them. "Philomena, inform the party that there will be a slight delay before Akantha will come out."

Philomena curtsied and rushed out, Calanthe and Calista copying her with anxious looks sent at the still kneeling bride.

Poseidon frowned at his eldest mortal daughter for a moment before gesturing for her to rise. She did so with reluctance. It seemed that she would not be getting married after all, she thought dully to herself. She wouldn't obey if Poseidon ordered her not to go forth with ceremony and then he would probably kill her for it.

"You intend to marry a son of _Athena_ ," the god finally snapped. "A goddess who has continually offended me and attempted to humiliate me. You wish to lower yourself by marrying one of her spawn!"

Akantha swallowed slightly at the rage in his voice before settling into a battle stance, deciding to treat this as if she were fighting a hydra instead of speaking to a parent. "I understand your displeasure, My Lord, but Lysander is-" he cut her off and she felt her nose twitch in irritation. She hated to be interrupted.

"I care not what he is or is not. The only relevant fact I care about is his heritage. He is a son of Athena. I will not accept this. Either you retract your decision to marry him or you will no longer be my child!"

"Then I am no longer your child!" Akantha retorted furiously as she lost her temper. "So be it! I love him and I will not change my decision." In a contest between her father, whom she was only seeing for the first time today, or the love of her life, there was no contest. Lysander, always.

Poseidon stared at her disbelief before curtly nodding. "Very well," he told her curtly. "You have my blessing." Akantha's eyes widened in shock as she watched her father disappear into a sea breeze. She stood still for another minute before turning and walking out to where the marriage party waited, anxious looks on their faces. Lysander was being held back from entering by brothers and he promptly rushed to her.

"Well?" he demanded anxiously. "What happened?"

She broke into a beam. "Lord Poseidon has approved of our match!" He instantly swept her into his arms and spun her around in delight.

"Well then," Chiron declared with a happy smile. "I think it's time to begin don't you?"

Lysander helped her into the chariot before he climbed in and Akantha chuckled slightly at the pegasi's grumblings in her head at being made to carry them as she linked her hands with Lysander. He gave her a brief smile before concentrating on guiding the chariot to the temple dedicated to Hera.

The ceremony passed in a blur for Akantha. She had no memory of Chiron sacrificing a goat for them, or cutting her hair to signal losing her innocence, or the ceremonial bath. She didn't know when it ended or how they got back to the pavilion for the feast. She only remembered Lysander's face and a sense of happiness and peace that she would never feel again.


	2. Alekios' Birth

**Disclaimer: PJO/HOO/TOA belongs to RR, Greek Mythology belonged to the Ancient Greeks. Btw, if anyone has any requests for oneshots about Akantha, go ahead and put in a request in a review, I'll do my best to write it.**

* * *

It seemed like she was splitting in half from the pain.

"Keep breathing," her half-sister Philomena encouraged, wiping her face with a cloth. Of her current seventeen siblings, Philomena was her favourite. "Oh Eileithyia, Artemis, Hecate and Hera, goddesses of childbirth. Be with my sister in this most dangerous of times."

Akantha knew why she and the other attendants, a daughter each of Eileithyia, Hecate and Apollo, were all so worried. Childbirth was dangerous in the best of circumstances and she was early.

"How is," she struggled to rasp out. "Huff huff, Lysander? Will he, huff huff, live?"

"We aren't sure," Philomena admitted, continuing to pat her face with the sea water-soaked cloth to try and strengthen her. "There's been no news yet."

Akantha moaned in fear. Lysander had been badly injured whilst on border patrol earlier that day when a manticore attacked the camp several hours before. The combination of worry and stress had sent the eight months pregnant daughter of Poseidon into premature labour.

"If only we had the Fleece," Alyona, daughter of Apollo muttered, pressing a canteen of nectar to Akantha's lips.

"Well we don't," Asphodel, daughter of Hecate, snapped back. "We shall just have to make do. Give her some more nectar."

"Only a small bit," Euanthe, the final attendant and daughter of EIleithyia, warned sharply. "She's gotten flushed already."

Philomena gave a curt nod and pressed the goblet to Akantha's lips. At that moment, the daughter of Poseidon was hit by yet another contraction. She yelled out in pain as the nectar began going down her throat, making her choke on the liquid.

After that, she had no memory of what happened. It was merely a blur of yelling, pain and heat.

"Akantha!" Philomena's face filled her foggy vision. "Akantha you need to push or both of you will die! _Push_ Sister! Now!"

Without conscious understanding of what she was doing, Akantha obeyed. She pressed down and felt hands on her stomach. She screamed with all her remaining strength, and finally she was rewarded with a baby's angry, strong, wail. She gave a weak smile at the sound before falling into the familiar blackness of unconsciousness.

* * *

When she woke, Lysander was sitting beside her bed. His face had a new scar stretched across the entire left side, but he was beaming down at the small white blanket in his arms anyway. Very expressive for such a solemn man, but she was pleased to see it. It meant they had a healthy child, despite her disagreement with Ares and Athena's anger at the both of them. It meant the early birth hadn't damaged her child.

"Boy or girl?" She croaked. He started slightly, tearing his grey eyes away from their child. He grinned at her.

"As I guessed. We have a son." He adjusted the bundle and she pushed herself up on her elbows, ignoring the agony in her belly as she craned her head to see the baby. She smiled, seeing the obvious way he favoured her. But his thin layer of hair was blonde and in ringlets.

"Are you still happy with the name we discussed?" She asked as she reached out. He nodded and passed her the squirming baby whom she promptly pulled close to her chest to see him better.

"Then hello, Alekios, son of Lysander and Akantha, grandson of Poseidon and Athena," she breathed out. She pressed a kiss to his tiny forehead, a feeling of incomparable love welling up within her. For this child, Akantha would willingly betray the gods.

"Welcome to the world, my son," Lysander added as he perched carefully beside her to continue to drink in the sight of their child. "May the gods bless you."


	3. The Washington March

**Dedicated to the guest who requested a oneshot of Akantha with the other gods. This might not be quite what you meant, but I'll do more when Goddess of Strength is finished and I can focus on it.**

* * *

Akantha decided that she loved the nineteen-sixties. She wasn't too pleased about the current 'Cold War' the US was engaged in against the Soviets, of course, and she had been furious when she learned that Ares had tricked Lyndon B. Johnson into getting America involved in the Vietnamese war, but on the whole she was delighted with the current era.

There was so much progress going on, so much more liberty and equality for everybody! Akantha was particularly delighted with the current civil rights' movement, and the suffragette movement. In fact, she was so pleased that she had decided to join the Civil Rights' March for Freedom and Jobs on Washington D.C. that was happening that day.

She appeared in an alley just beside the Lincoln Memorial, where the marchers were all gathering, and slipped easily into the crowd with a massive grin on her pretty face.

She had the appearance of a college-aged white girl, with wavy black hair that had multiple thin braids woven into it, and her sea-coloured eyes were bright with excitement. She wore a denim mini-skirt, a burgundy top with matching go-go boots, and a black leather jacket. A large button saying "Equality for All" was pinned to her top.

"Well, fancy seeing you here, cousin dearest," a familiar voice called to her teasingly.

Her beam widened and she scrambled over to join Apollo and Hermes, who had also just arrived at the gathering. She squealed loudly in childish delight as the sun god scooped her up and twirled her around in the air, earning them both several reproachful looks from some elderly mortals standing nearby.

"Kids these days," one of the old women muttered. "No sense of decorum at all!"

The three gods snickered at the word 'kids'.

"How d'you think she'd react?" Hermes whispered to his brother and cousin as they linked arms and began making their way to the front of the crowd to get signs, aided by the Mist, of course. "If she knew that we are all a couple of millennia older than her?"

"For shame, Lord Hermes," Akantha smirked back. "Are you saying that I'm old?"

Hermes' eyes went large with panic over his unintentional mis-step. Calling a goddess old, or insulting their vanity in any way, rarely went well of course. Though Akantha was far more easy-going then the rest of their female peers. Thankfully, his brother jumped in to save him from the force of nature that was a scorned woman.

"Old, my dear cousin?" Apollo asked cheekily. "You? Impossible, you are clearly in the flower of youth. In fact, I have composed a new limerick dedicated solely to your-"

"No!" both of the other immortals cried in unison, wide-eyed.

He frowned at them in puzzlement as they each took a picket sign, absently flashing bright smiles at the man and woman manning the desk. Said mortals flushed deeply at the beautiful smiles, and waved after them as the gods left.

"We just mean," Hermes began to say smoothly. "That your poems are so amazing, the mortals wouldn't be able to take it. They would all surely have heart attacks from pure shock and awe at your literary prowess if any of them were to hear you. Then the day would be ruined."

"Ah," Apollo's eyes widened in understanding, while Akantha and Hermes both slumped in relief at their narrow escape. "Of course, you're right. I'll tell it to you later, after we've returned to Olympus. The Muses can help me perform it on stage!"

The other two exchanged secretive smiles as Apollo lost himself in planning out his next performance. They took positions near the front of the crowd, but far enough back that they could go unnoticed by the mortals, who were still readying themselves for the march.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Akantha sighed happily, leaning her head against Apollo's shoulder. Absently, she noted how toned he was. Of course, he could appear however he liked. But she also knew that he practiced his archery enough for those muscles to be completely genuine.

"What's wonderful?" Hermes asked, smiling fondly at his favourite sibling and cousin.

He wished they would just get on with it and get married already, but he also knew that Akantha still loved her deceased mortal husband, and considered herself bound to him. As the goddess of loyalty, it was impossible for her to be unfaithful. While she had her mortal children, marrying another man was an entirely different ballgame, one that Akantha was unwilling to play. And Apollo feared losing her too much to make any advances, considering their close friendship to be better than not having her at all. The way things were going between them, it was possible that the two of them would never come together, which was a very depressing thought. Perhaps he would speak to Aphrodite about giving them a little nudge in the right direction.

"This," Akantha waved around at the large crowd gathered. "There are 250,000 people gathered here, of all races and ages. And all of them are united with the singular goal of helping the minority. 3,000 people make up the news crews, and they're abroadcasting nation and world-wide. It puts me in awe of them, it truly does. This sort of thing is what I love about mortals."

"You're right," Apollo agreed, his eyes bright as he gazed around at the large crowd. "They really are fantastic creatures, aren't they?"

"Indeed," Hermes hummed. There was a reason he and Apollo had so many demigod children, and it wasn't simply a love of sex, as most people thought. It was a love of humanity, and all its' potential. They were truly an intoxicating race. He was very glad that they had created them.

"I quite agree," a new voice chimed up.

The three smiled in greeting as Aphrodite sashayed up to them, dressed in an elegant, sky-blue skirt, a cream blouse, and black heels. Her make-up was done perfectly, as it always was. A sign hung loosely from her fingertips as she trotted to them.

"Decided to join us then, have you?" Akantha asked as she leaned over to air kiss Aphrodite's cheeks in the French style to greet her. Aphrodite reciprocated the gesture as she nodded in confirmation of Akantha's words.

"How could I resist?" she asked with an elegant shrug. "All the love in the air? And the hope is quite sweet too. Elpis is around here somewhere. I'm not sure where, though. She was so excited about this that she was literally jumping."

"I'm sure that we'll see her around later," Akantha shrugged, still cheery. "Oh, this place is wonderful," she added with a sigh. "Everybody is so loyal to the cause, they all have so much strength, and they're so brave, prepared to take the wrath of the KKK, just to do the right thing. It makes me so happy, it really does."

"It looks like it's starting," Apollo added, his gaze fixing on A. Philip Randolph, now seventy-four but as dedicated to his cause for black rights as ever, climbing up to stand on a podium to speak. Silently, the god of the dramatic arts and poetry blessed the man, along with Martin Luther King and the rest of the orators for the day, so that they would all speak eloquently, and inspire their followers to stay their course and remain loyal to their cause. A small gift to Akantha, and one she wouldn't recognize was for her, which suited his purposes perfectly.

Despite his age, and regardless of Apollo's blessing, Randolph spoke well, his words keeping the audience quiet and intently. He finally closed his speech with the declaration that, "We here today are only the first wave. When we leave, it will be to carry the civil rights revolution home with us into every nook and cranny of the land, and we shall return again and again to Washington in ever growing numbers until total freedom is ours."

A great cheer went through the crowd as Randolph stepped down, to be replaced by the second speaker of the day. The gods themselves clapped and cheered as wildly as any of the mortals for the speakers, and threw themselves into the march with wild abandon.

Several musicians, including Apollo's daughter Mahalia Jackson and his Roman grandson Bob Dylan, all played short performances, before Martin Luther King Junior took the stage. The crowd went silent as the famous activist stood at the podium and cleared his throat to begin his speech.

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation," he began. Unnoticed by anyone save for the gods and a select few mortals and half-bloods able to see through the Mist, the golden glow of the blessing of Apollo shimmered around him like a Christian angel's halo.

"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation," King continued, looking up and seeming to meet several peoples' eyes as he looked around. "This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity."

He went on to say that they had not received what they were promises, his eloquence awing everyone who heard it.

"The memory of this _has_ to last for the rest of the West," Akantha hissed to Apollo under her breath as they listened to King declare that although America had failed to fulfil its' promise of granting equal rights to all citizens, including blacks, they didn't believe that it was too late for it to be fulfilled, and for there to be peace for all.

"Definitely," he muttered back. "I'll see to it myself. The man's a genius."

"It's a shame he's married, and so loyal to his wife," Aphrodite murmured to them quietly. "I'd happily give him a child."

"But he is," Akantha added, wearing a smile of admiration. "So loyal, to his wife and cause and his god. And so brave, ready to do whatever it takes to gain rights, no matter the cost. A very strong hero." A loyal, strong and brave hero, the very epitome of Akantha's domains. No wonder she adored the man so much. Apollo was mildly surprised that there didn't seem to be any relation between her and King. King wasn't even a legacy, just a good, mortal man who believed in his cause.

"And when this happens…," King began to close his speech, voice still filled with passion. "we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

The crowd went wild, the gods still just as enthusiastic as the mortals.

* * *

After the march was over, they went to have dinner in a small diner in New York, just a few blocks away from Olympus.

Akantha sipped at her chocolate milkshake, smiling at her friends.

"What a great day," she hummed.

Her friends nodded in agreement.

"Only one thing could make it better," Aphrodite added with a mischievous giggle.

"Oh?" Akantha raised an eyebrow at the other immortal. "And what would that be, then?"

"Dancing," the goddess of love announced, a wicked grin stretching over her face. She twisted her wrist, and a Beatles' song began to play on the jukebox. Without waiting for any of her companions to comment, she grabbed Hermes' wrist and dragged him into the centre of the floor to dance, leaving Apollo and Akantha at the table.

They looked at each other for a second, before Apollo grinned and offered a hand to his friend. "Care to dance, milady?"

"I would be honoured, my lord," she replied in a haughty tone. They burst out into a fresh round of laughter, before Apollo grabbed her hand and tugged her out onto the floor, pulling her into his arms as they danced to Blackbird.


End file.
